Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Amver vessels concerned about avoiding right whales can turn to their iPhone or iPad and download the Whale Alert app to steer clear of the endangered mammals. According to NOAA-

Mariners along the U.S. east coast can now download a new iPad and Iphone application that warns them when they enter areas of high risk of collision with critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The free Whale Alert app provides one source for information about right whale management measures and the latest data about right whale detections, all overlaid on NOAA digital charts.

"Whale Alert represents an innovative collaboration to protect this critically endangered species," said David Whiley, NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Sanctuary research coordinator and project lead. "Whale conservation is greater than any one organization and this project show how many organizations can unite for a good cause."

A key feature of Whale Alert is a display linking near real-time acoustic buoys that listen for right whale calls to an iPad or iPhone on a ship's bridge showing the whale's presence to captains transiting the shipping lanes in and around Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. "The idea that right whales are directly contributing to conservation through their own calls is pretty exciting," said Christopher Clark, whose team at the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology helped develop the acoustic detection and warning system.

North Atlantic right whales, which live along North America's east coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, are one of the world's rarest animals and a species on the brink of extinction. Recent estimates put the population of North Atlantic right whales at approximately 350 to 550 animals. Collision with ships is the leading cause of right whale death.

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